China launched its first rocket from a new commercial space site on Saturday night as the country attempts to expand its presence in a business currently led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The rocket successfully placed two experimental satellites into orbit, China Central Television reported.
The carrier rocket, named Long March-12 Y1, was sent to space by state-owned Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Co. It launched from a site on the southern island of Hainan, the first in the country dedicated to commercial missions.
China seeks to become a space power but lags in commercial rocket launches. SpaceX had about 100 launches in 2023, eight times more than all Chinese private-sector startups combined.
The Long March-12 carrier rocket, developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, is currently the country’s largest single-core carrier rocket in payload capacity, according to Xinhua.